A/N: Hello friends! I'm back! After getting sick and recovering, my husband getting sick and recovering to my mom having to having surgery and recovering to me getting a root canal done today …it's a been a hot minute since we've seen each other huh? Well not to worry though all of that I am back and better than ever and what! The story is almost finished and there will be regular constant updates? (For once). Yes, it is and yes there will be! Look down below for the update schedule!
I tried something different here with the perspectives; this is my first time writing third POV and I wanted to experiment a little with everyone's thoughts. Tell me what you think, love it, hate it, kind of in the middle? Leave me your thoughts in reviews!
Enjoy!
Previously on Little Girl Lost: Tessa, along with Scorpion 2.0 and Centipede are setting up to find Veronica who has been kidnaped by the 86ers. While the others await Toby finally got a chance to talk with Paige and find out more than he bargained for.
Paige stopped herself as she took a deep breath and stared at Toby with the most haunted look. "Drew didn't kill anyone. I did."
Little Girl Lost
Chapter 15: Scorpion 3.0
Chapter Summary: Scorpion along with Tessa and Paige find coordinates on Veronica and prepare a plan to get her back.
"Welcome back to Scorpion everyone" Toby Curtis Season 2 episode 1 "Satellite of Love"
"We're almost done – Sly are you ready?" Happy commanded as Sly nodded his head and before she could pause Ralph did a thumb up as Happy smirked and finished the line perfectly in sync with Walter and Tessa.
"Now!" Tessa said as Sly and Ralph both started typing furiously as the two experts followed them in and Ralph saw it immediately.
"Coordinates! Headed north in a warehouse in the Nevada desert, 6 miles outside Vegas." Ralph said as he memorized the coordinates and in the corner of his eye, he saw his aunt smile as she commanded them to do the exit process. First Happy would fire down the walls, removing herself and any trace of her IP address, then Sly would follow with the second wall, then Ralph would do the steps to trace out following the pattern and waiting for the light to blink. Walter would then shut it down and Tessa brought up the rear closing down and canceling out the machine.
It was seamless. Simple. They themselves were like lines of code, each doing their jobs as they were programmed to do. Each was different in their own way but together they made the bloodlines of a seamless, flawless machine.
If only life were that easy.
"Done! I got her and…I know where she is." Tessa said, her smile morphing into a frown.
"How? We don't even have the exact location yet just the coordinates, this area has tons of buildings." Happy said factually as Tessa raised her eyebrow.
"I don't need to narrow it down anymore. I know, she's there….in the Pony house club. It was Veronica's before she sold it to the 86ers. She's there." Tessa said as she sighed. "My plan will work but…I don't know about the rest. Paige, I need you in here!" Tessa yelled as both Paige and Toby emerged from the kitchen, Paige looked stressed while Toby was white as a sheet, looking rattled. He quickly made a beeline for Happy and hugged her tight.
"What's up with the affection Doc?" Happy groaned as she lightly pushed him off but not before squeezing his hand.
"Nothing….just I'm glad we're together," Toby mumbled as his eyes met Paige's and she quickly looked away moving to Tessa's side as she observed the odd interaction. Her eyes lingered a bit too long on the shrink, but she couldn't help it. He unnerved her. It took a lot, at this point, to unnerve Tessa.
She was always the most hardened, most reserved even as a child. Between her and Paige it was obvious she didn't have the best social graces, nor did she care but it pleased Paige whenever she tried to fit in and she had enough EQ to want to help her sister, even please her. So, she tried – even if it meant failing time and time again and she kept trying…. time and time again.
However, this was different. She knew Paige was unhappy, angry even, at how Tessa approached her, uh, scorpion? Friends? Team? Whatever the term be she would try…up to a point at least.
Nonetheless trying with normal people never unnerved her. Even people, as annoying as they are, never bothered her. That was until she arrived here and met people that weren't normal. They were geniuses…. like her.
She was used to being the smartest in the room, never has she put so much effort into shielding her thoughts, her plans. They were so complex no normal would ever figure out what her next move was until she was already 5 steps ahead. Now, she may be one of the smartest people in the room but Walter O'Brien posed a challenge. The closest to her intellect, she had no doubt he could and would find out her endgame if too much was given away, and then what?
They would turn against her. Turn against Paige wasn't as likely but the shrink….Toby Curtis had an influence over her sister that may be strong enough to give Paige reason to doubt and she couldn't have that.
So, until then she would keep her cards close to her chest and her eyes even closer on the geniuses around her.
All this Tessa gathered as she kept her cool mask of indifference and brought up the files of their task at hand. Bringing down the 86ers and finding their mother.
Tessa ever cool, turned to Paige whose expression was strained with worry and her eyes widened at the pictures on the laptop.
"The Pony House Club," she said as Paige gasped.
"You've got to be kidding me" Paige whispered as she ruffled some of Ralph's hair as Tessa paid closer attention to the screen.
"There's our guy." Tessa glared as she zoomed in. "Gordan Williams, he's the 2nd in command and the face of the 86ers. I bet you anything he has has a laptop of every safehouse, every code and transaction. If anything, coordinates would be there too since Veronicais high on their priority list. We get that laptop we find her and even bring down the syndicate all together." Tessa muttered as Paige's breath hitched.
"Tessa are you crazy? That's a bigger operation that you told me." Paige glared as she met her sister's stare head-on.
"What else do you propose? They will keep coming after us, they will launch new attacks and new strategies until we're all dead. At least with this, we have a chance of getting off their radar. On that laptop is everything about the 86ers; safehouses, accounts, cops in their pocket you name it. If we get that laptop the whole gang is gone, and the threat is over permanently. Turn Paige we would be free." Tessa pleaded as Paige looked thoughtful.
"How would getting the laptop bring it all down?" Happy asked skeptically as Tessa smiled wickedly.
"The 86ers are both lethal and efficient. To have such control and the ability to move fast you can't oversee too many people. With money and creditability, you can hire almost anyone to do a job for you no matter how dirty. We're not targeting anyone on the lower totem pole. Our mission is to find 85 people, the 86ers. That laptop is key to finding them. Now you know why they have a vendetta against us, but we do have one thing that they don't – knowledge. The fact that one of their members is dead isn't commonly known."
"How's that?" Cabe asked curiously with a raise of his brow as Tessa smirked but before she could explain Walter was the one who answered.
"It would damage their creditability that a common street thug was able to take one of them out so easily" Walter interrupted
"Exactly. There's only a handful of people who know what happened that night and most of them are either dead or in this room now. They would do anything to keep that information to themselves. They would be so careful to keep that info that they won't worry about guys on the bottom. Plus, Gordan always keeps that thing on him…. except when he's with a dancer. Code Miranda should work Paige. He is part owner." Tessa scrambled as Paige gaped.
"I don't know about that Tess; it's been years…. wouldn't they know our faces?"
"No…. they would know mine, but I can be behind the scenes. They don't know your face and we've done this before. You know how to do this." Tessa smirked as Paige looked around to the confused faces as Walter's slowly turned red.
"You want Paige to go in as a dancer to be used a bait?!" Walter asked slowly as his hands fisted.
"Not bait…a distraction. We've done this before, it's nothing new. Besides it's not that we haven't used our previous jobs before to use in cons." Tessa said off handily as Paige's face flamed red.
"You were a dancer!?" Toby shouted as Paige blushed but quickly shook her head as Tessa looked around with a raised eyebrow.
"Technically we were burlesque dancers…. not strippers and we only did it when we're running cons until Mom decided that there was more money to be made in buying clubs, not conning them," Paige muttered as Ralph sat back stunned and shook his head, returning to the work on the computer.
"Plus, Tessa does have a point. In High School we did work at the club as waitresses and dancers…. we know it inside and out. If we were to sneak in and get the laptop it would be better in doing it in something we know. I still know some of the dances we used back then. " Paige thought out loud as Tessa nodded.
"I designed the security systems myself and those cheapskates hadn't changed it because it works so well. It might be our best shot." Tessa agreed as Toby shook his head and held up his hands.
"Wait, wait – you were both dancers and designed a system….you both would have been teenagers? Young teenagers….like Ralph's age!"
"Yes….we were." Paige nodded as Tess grimaced.
"That's what happens when your mother is Veronica." Tessa sighed as she opened back up her laptop. "None the less it could work. Once inside we would just need to break open the case and get past the encryption code and the laptop is ours."
"Why dancers though?" Cabe asked prudently as Tessa smirked before showing a photo of Gordan leering at a burlesque dancer without the case beside him on the floor.
"Gordan gets distracted easily and since strippers come to a dime a dozen in Vegas, Burlesque dancers come at a higher price….especially since protestation makes them a pretty dime. Of course, when we do this Paige wouldn't be that….she just needs to audition for the show and Doc can analyze which cronies would be good for the job. Once she's in all she needs to do is grab the case and get out before the show." Tessa explained as Cabe slowly nodded, frowning all the same.
"Not likely. Our friend Gordan there may look like a sleazeball and by all counts he is but he is too paranoid to forget that case by a pretty girl….his posture is angled towards the laptop and even by being 'distracted' he still doesn't look like a happy camper."
"Gordan is a lot of things, and a fool isn't one of them. There's a lock – both a digital and physical one. Now I'm confident I can hack the device but the physical one is specialty made…. I've personally never seen anything like it before." Tessa mumbled eyeing happily as the mechanic was already looking at the specs.
"Not surprised…that's a cantor 850 with a spiral head and a Gomez spring lock. It's' never been made before with that spring which means Gomez himself made it. He's the best lock maker in the world and has the prices to back it up. Highly specialized and a no-questions-asked policy."
Toby pursed his lips as Happy kept eyeing the lock with a grin "and you know this how my sweet and spicy noodle?"
"I know a few people," She said cryptically answer but before Toby could interject Tessa asked
"So can you make something to break it open?"
"Short answer is yes but it won't be enough for a tool alone. If you're going to break it, that spring needs to be opened at a precise angle and time, so it doesn't go off. Otherwise, the spring will go or the backup alarm will go off if you don't do it in time." Happy said plainly as Tessa blinked.
"What back up?"
Happy raised her eyebrow and tried to hide her smile at something so obvious, at least to her. "You see that wire; it leads to the back of the handle there?" Happy pointed as Tessa nodded slowly
"That's a trip wire; it's a backup system that Gomez is known for. You don't open it correctly or in the time it allows, and that thing breaks or explodes or whatever it was designed to do. So, stealing it isn't an option."
"Not to mention that if you want any of this to be prosecuted in a court of law it has to be found on his person or proved that it was his." Cabe interjected frowning at the conundrum.
"And copying it wouldn't fly either. Notice how rigid he his lower body is? The three guys surrounding him aren't causal, they are security. His grip is loose, but his shoulder and arm are stiff even though his stance is relaxed. I bet you anything that there's more than a lock on that thing but an encryption. If you copy it, hell even put in a foreign entity even goes into it the whole thing will erase. Paranoid putzes like him don't mess around and I remember a very similar case when Cabe's first wife was in the middle of that political scandal and Walter almost got, well, got by some sleaze ball."
"So, the only way is to get it in real time. I can hack my way in there, but I wasn't blessed with a photographic memory. I wouldn't be able to get the information in that short amount of time and Sly I know you can but you're not exactly Gordan's type." Tessa grumbled frustrated before Florence's small voice piped up.
"I can." She said factually as everyone turned to her surprised, Paige's mouth hanging open. "I have a near perfect memory; as good as Sly's. We would sometimes test each other with various equations. If I can see the contents, I can see all their information and pass it along." Flo said confidently with a just a hint of fear as Tessa was already shaking her head.
"And you don't have the skillset to open that lock and Paige can't do it. No offense." Happy said
"None taken," Paige said quickly as Tessa glared.
"So, you need me there too. I can build a tool and have that opened in ten minutes. Once I have it open Florence will memorize it and I put it right back into place. 15 minutes is all we need." Happy said leveling her stare as Paige sighed and Tessa was steaming, her short-tempered patience finally wearing off.
"No way. Paige going in is one thing….she's experienced and knows what she's doing but adding all of you! I'm not doing that. Not only do you all not know anything about dancing but this was supposed to be a two-person operation, not four! Not to mention you both could not pass as dancers without raising suspicion" Tessa fumed as Happy scoffed.
"And what do you mean by that? I'm not pretty?" She asked sarcastically as Tessa glared.
"I'm sure your fine but for one, you look ready to murder someone. Also mentioning your feet are too pointed and the indentions of your toes are curled in your shoe, which means your ankles are too stiff which is a clear indication of inflexibility. You don't dance often enough for them to be agile." Tessa sighed before looking over at Flo and shook her head. "And honestly I don't even know where to begin with you."
"Tessa! That's mean!" Paige scolded as she shot a look of apology towards Florence who became red-faced, but Walter placed a hand on her shoulder as Flo quickly calmed and Paige looked away, not wanting to see such an intimacy between the two and instead focused on her ranting sister.
"It's not like you both have an attitude of a dancer, it won't work!" Tessa said through gritted teeth as Paige's eyes suddenly lit up.
"But it could," Paige said smiling as she turned toward Tessa and raised her eyebrows Tessa caught on and shook her head.
"Oh hell no. Uh uh, I'm not doing that."
"It makes sense Tessa!" Paige said as she turned towards the two chagrined women as Paige excitably announced, "We can teach you!"
"What?" Happy deadpanned as Florence's mouth dropped open.
"It's just a 2-minute audition with a simple 8 count. Tess is right that Toby if you can find the right people to let us in, we can get in and out with less chance of being caught." Paige explained as Tess once again opened her mouth to protest until Paige said "it's too risky for us to go in by ourselves. We need 4 people, and they just need to learn a number. It's only logical to send me in as a distraction, Happy to pick the lock and Flo to memorize the passcodes and intel so that they could present it and have it hold up in court. You can work on the backend to make sure we don't get caught. We need you there Tess because as you said, you designed the security system,"
"Okay yes, I'll give you that one but Turn Paige…. they would have to learn in less than 24 hours," Tessa mumbled as Paige shook her head.
"We can do it. They can do it, at least if they want to? I know it's not originally what you signed up for." Paige asked as Happy looked murderous while Florence was biting her lip before squaring her shoulders.
"I promised I would stick by you and that I would help you. If my help requires me to learn this dance and sneak into a cartel-owned operation then….so, be it. I can learn it with proper instruction." Florence declared as she looked at Happy who sighed.
"I want to help, and I will…so just tell us what we need to do. It's not my thing but I dressed up like a sorority girl once…how bad could this be?"
"Yeah, Vegas baby!" Toby shouted as he smiled brilliantly at the group. "High stakes! Taking down bad guys! Impossible circumstances! Scorpion is back baby! We're now Scorpion 3.0!"
A/N: I hope you enjoyed the latest chapter! Let me know what you think in the reviews and I'll see you next Monday!
Next time on Little Girl Lost:
"You purposely bumped into me!" Florence shouted as Happy glared, Paige holding tight as Toby came over and nodded as he gripped Happy's hand, and she calmed down considerably.
"I wouldn't touch you with a ten-foot pole, you were in my way. You're supposed to turn left, not right. You're just always in the way!"
"What!" Florence shouted as Toby got in the middle of the warring woman as Paige let Happy go and turned toward her grinning sister.
"What… are you enjoying this?" Paige hissed out as Tessa shrugged her shoulders.
"I'm enjoying days of our genius considerably. I haven't seen two women fight over a boy since high school." Tessa smirked as everyone shifted to look at Walter, Happy, and Florence as Walter felt his face heat as he slowly backed out of the room but not before catching the eye of Tessa who smirked once more. He was really started to be incensed by that smirk of hers.
Backing out slowly he gathered his laptop and was prepared to go up to the loft to avoid any confrontation when he turned and there was Tessa, grinning like a madwoman as she swiftly took his laptop and papers and set them on the desk behind him before gripping the collar of his shirt almost painfully. She brought his face so close to hers he could see each freckle on her face. (It was 123).
"I think it's time we had that long-overdue chat, Mr. O'Brien." Tessa smiled but in her eyes was a wave of rising anger that made Walter gulp and his knees go weak.